Evolution’s Strategy for Promoting Education and Employment

The company Evolution appeared on the Georgian market in 2018. It is one of the largest employers in Georgia. The main goal of the company is to offer a comfortable environment, competitive remuneration and development to its potential employees.    Assisting young people and ensuring their access to education in parallel to employment determines the corporate responsibility strategy of Evolution. In particular, in addition to employment, to provide an opportunity for young people to receive an education, have access to the internet, realize their potential and take their first steps in their career with the assistance of the company.

Could you tell us about the activities and projects of Evolution Georgia? What are the priority areas, and main target groups in our country?

Evolution has been operating in Georgia since 2018 and it is a world leading B2B Provider of online gaming services.

What is most important, Evolution is one of the largest employers in Georgia. The company unites over 7,000 young people who can take their first career steps in the growing international company without prior work experience.

Since the start of operations, the main priority and direction of the company has been promoting employment and empowerment of young people. At Evolution, career advancement as well as personal and professional growth are possible, allowing our employees to gain promotion at the company or become highly demanded in labor market in general, because the skills employees develop with the assistance of Evolution are valuable and necessary.

Tell us about Evolution’s corporate responsibility and SDG implementation priorities.

One of the major values of Evolution is Do Right. Under the mentioned value we understand not only observing all appropriate legal requirements and principles of activity but a commitment to add value to the community we operate in. That is why we chose empowerment of youth and access to education. Evolution’s corporate responsibility is not only about creating jobs but also providing an opportunity for young people in Georgia to be prepared, to receive an education, to have access to the internet…to assist them by accessibility of basic education to realize their potential and then take their first steps in their career.

Last year, in collaboration with several organizations, Evolution supported the construction of Knowledge Café in Tsnori, Kakheti, which will become an educational hub for young people.

In addition, in cooperation with the Believe Foundation in Poti, professional training was organized for last-year pupils and students.

With the support from Evolution, laptops were donated and access to the internet was financed for a year for 48 disadvantaged families in 2022.

New Year’s is a special time for us as concerns out sense of corporate responsibility. On behalf of our employees we assist people in whose lives we believe we will facilitate fundamental changes with our activities.

This initiative is working towards the fifth pillar of the UN Sustainable Development Goals focused on access to education.

Access to education does not always mean a degree in a specific field of education. Approximately 103 million young people worldwide have a deficit of the basic knowledge and skills required for realization of their potential in the future. Out of those, 60% are female. In Georgia, about 78,000 disadvantaged students have no internet access, hence no possibility to gain the benefits of and access to basic education.

I would also like to mention gender equality which is one of the top priorities of Evolution. We are proud that empowerment of women has always been and will continue to be a priority component of our daily routine, which is demonstrated by a healthy balance – 50/50, maintained by Evolution.

We believe that ensuring equal access to social, political and economic decision-making process for women and girls will facilitate refining the Sustainable Development Goals.

I also believe that it is a direct responsibility of each company to nurture the establishment of a decent working environment thus tackling unemployment worldwide.

The direct goal of our company is to reduce the unemployment of young people. Unfortunately, the policy in Georgia required meeting complicated and often unrealistic conditions by young people for staring their first job. By Evolution’s Firstjob concept, a lot of young people were provided with an opportunity to start work at an international company without any work experience.

What are your recommendations for business and government in terms of corporate sustainability and implementation of SDG Agenda 2030? What would you say about Georgia’s sustainable future? And why is it important for companies to embed international standards in their operations and business strategies?

Integrating the UN Sustainable Development Goals in a business strategy is a way towards creating better working conditions, better environment, equal opportunities and, eventually, a better future.

In our times, it has become vital for companies to consider the mentioned principles. When selecting a company as an employer, we are already interested in its values, social activities, the role of the company in sustainable development of the world rather than simply choosing its major conditions and benefits. Currently, customers and potential customers are not simply interested in quality of products or services, but rather what is behind them, what the company is additionally doing to contribute to creating a better future, to protect and improve the community it represents.

Furthermore, it is important for companies to focus on empowerment of people employed at initial positions, taking care of their professional and personal development. We should consider requirements we lay down for young people so that they are able to start work. In addition, we should look through our conditions and improvement prospects.

It is important to constantly monitor the indicators that help us measure the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

I believe that it is important to integrate some issues at the legislative level for the execution to be efficient. The world is facing inequality and to reduce it, financial empowerment of people living in poverty is important. In addition to economic equality, it is also important to continue supporting particularly vulnerable groups at the legislative and political level. The only possibility for commitments to be transformed into efficient actions is to assume responsibilities and work in coordination for the achievement of the shared goals by the parties involved, including the private sector.

Could you tell us about the future plans of Evolution Georgia?

What I can tell you for sure is that Evolution will continue the course it has chosen. The company is still planning growth in our country but, naturally, in parallel to growth, additional needs will arise for the creation of decent working environment we aim to take care of as part of our daily activities.

In addition, we are going to welcome the New Year – 2023 with a new sense of corporate responsibility. This time, on behalf of Evolution, we became friends with Platform Superhero and we want over 400 children to celebrate their birthdays in a special manner.

From 2023, a special program – Evo’s Scholarship will be launched for our student employees. The program aims at assisting students in paying tuition fees and motivating them to continue their studies in the desired fields. Unfortunately, there are many people who cannot continue or who, despite a great desire, cannot start their studies due to the lack of funds. There are many people who could not acquire either state or university financing and with our activity, we would like to tell our existing employees that we are beside them.

We believe that each employee is a superhero and they have special powers – this year our Evolutionaries /superheroes will make children’s birthday wishes come true. 100% of our donations on behalf of our superheroes are used by beneficiaries and we notify all of our employees of the results of their superpowers with video and photo materials.

Our superheroes will also receive presents for the motivation of performing good deeds, aimed at strengthening Georgian production, which is why we became friends AlterSocks, which implemented our idea.

In addition, our responsibility to society and the importance of implementing our values are increasing, motivating us to support more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to stimulate partnering organizations at the same time in order to facilitate empowerment of our community together.

In line with adopting better working conditions, we are proud that we will provide information to more young people about corporate responsibility principles, the importance of their engagement and ways of implementing them in daily life, which will promote raising public awareness and interest in striving for a better future.